Sources: Southern Miss expected to hire Marshall coach Charles Huff
Huff was in the last year of a four-year deal with the Thundering Herd
Marshall coach Charles Huff is set to take another job in the Sun Belt.
Sources told Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger that Huff is expected to become the new coach at Southern Miss.
Southern Miss and Marshall coach Charles Huff, barring a last-minute change, are expected to finalize a deal Sunday to make him the new head coach, sources tell @YahooSports.
Marshall, which has not offer Huff an extension, activated its coaching search earlier this week.— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) December 8, 2024
Marshall won the Sun Belt championship game on Saturday over Louisiana to move to 10-3 on the season. Huff would be the second coach to move on shortly after winning a conference title game. Hours after Ohio won the MAC title game, it was reported that Tim Albin was heading to Charlotte.
The Eagles went 1-11 in 2024 under Will Hall. Southern Miss failed to beat an FBS team during the season and lost 37-3 to Marshall on Nov. 9.
Huff’s future at Marshall had been in doubt for much of the season. He entered 2024 in the fourth year of a four-year contract he signed at the start of the 2021 season. He had said over the summer that he expected a new contract to happen, but as the season went on and there wasn’t a new deal, it became clear that Huff could end up leaving.
That didn’t affect Marshall, especially over the second half of the season. The Thundering Herd lost to Virginia Tech and Ohio State in September and were 3-3 after a 24-23 loss to Georgia Southern. Since that loss to the Eagles, Marshall has reeled off six straight victories, including a 35-33 win over James Madison in the final week of the season to win the Sun Belt’s East Division before taking the conference title.
Huff was making $755,500 in 2024 according to USA Today’s salary database while Hall was making $824,000. Just 16 public school coaches made less than Huff did in 2024 and Louisiana-Monroe’s Bryant Vincent was the only Sun Belt coach with a lower salary.
Before coming to Marshall, Huff was an assistant at Penn State, Mississippi State and Alabama. He was the Crimson Tide’s running backs coach for two seasons in 2019 and 2020 and had coached running backs for both the Nittany Lions and Bulldogs.
Marshall was 31-20 in Huff’s four seasons with the school. Southern Miss, meanwhile has been to just one bowl in the past five seasons and went 4-20 over the past two seasons.
